


Touchdown at Resistance HQ

by LordReborn



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben Solo interacting with the Resistance, F/M, Fix-It, Spoilers for Episode IX, Watch me have Ben Solo finally fly the Falcon damn it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 08:02:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21960061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LordReborn/pseuds/LordReborn
Summary: Spoilers for Episode IXWhen Ben Solo ascended to the Light, Rey fell to the Dark Side because that's the gist of Ben's luck. Then the Force continues Its quest to test his patience by forcing him to work together to save her with his worst enemies - the Resistance.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 14
Kudos: 66





	Touchdown at Resistance HQ

**Author's Note:**

> I've been content to be a SW and Reylo fan in peace, surfing the tags like a hermit and enjoying everyone's amazing works
> 
> but now they hurt baby Ben Solo and I'm here to avenge him!

* * *

It’s a cruel twist of fate that she falls to the Dark in the end. It’s also a pretty twisted turn of fate that he chose that moment to rise to the Light.

The Force is full of irony these days.

He knows that his dad always had a certain predisposition to arrive just in the nick of time to very important events. Even in death, Han Solo uses the hero’s entrance and swipes in to save both the day and his son.

Ben understands that it was just the memory of his dad talking before his eyes, but that wouldn’t stop Han Solo anyways. Consequently, Ben’s not quite sure if what happened was just him talking to a projected image of his dad or the real, Force-ghost deal.

He can pretty much bet at this point, that Han pulled some badass move on the mumbo jumbo he despises so much and got his revenge on it along with taking his son back.

But now things certainly remain still complicated.

Rey fell to the Dark Side and fled with his TIE and the Wayfinder to Exegol, basically leaving Ben sitting on his ass in the Death Star ruins.

(After which he had a nice talk with his father.)

And now Ben is confronted with two things that he must do: get the hell out of these ruins and find a way to Exegol. If darksider-Rey gets to meet her evil grandfather, they might start a pretty strong friendship that will be a pain to unravel. Even more than it presently is.

Ben squints into the distance, trying to find the rundown skimmer Rey used to get here. After that, he has a sort-of plan, but that’s only if he lives long enough to get out of here.

* * *

He shouldn’t have worried.

In another, wilder twist of fate, he gets to meet FN-2187 again and his friend, the Renegade Stormtrooper: Reprise.

Ben has long had an inkling that many of the stolen children (Hux’s idea, obviously, but very much in theme with the First Order) would rebel at some point, but FN-2187’s case was such a big deal because it was the most visible and explosive one at that point in time.

Ben was making his way through the raging sea, trying not to drown like it is bound to happen in a joke with idiots, and using the Force as a guide to survive when he hears someone screaming at him in the distance. It turns out that it is FN-2187 in the same kind of skimmer as his, accompanied by his ex-trooper friend.

The man was too preoccupied raging in Ben’s direction to be of any use in steering his own disparaged ship though, and the woman trooper, Ben observes half-heartedly, seems to be having a hard time doing it all by herself.

Damn, FN-2187, those are not points in your favor. 

Ben promptly pretends to ignore them and sees to it that he makes it back to the cliffside of the continent in one piece. Sure enough, the Force guides him true and it’s only when he’s escaladed the rockface and got to more stable ground that a blaster is trust in his face.

He glares at Poe Dameron (yes, he knows who the man is, and he definitely _remembers_ him as the catalyst for FN-2187’s defection) and their staredown lasts long enough that FN-2187 and his ex-trooper friend arrive, drenched to the bone just like Ben is.

Ben stifles his trembling and continues to glare. He spots the _Falcon_ in the distance, half in the ground and his glare intensifies.

“Kylo Ren!” FN growls and points an accusing finger. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

Ben feels a vein in his temple pulse, but he glides carefully over the apparent antagonism. There is no time now, they have to save Rey.

“Rey fell to the Dark Side and I need to save her.” He stops, purses his lips and grimaces because this will be hard to say. “ _We_ need to save her.”

“Wait, what?” The muzzle of the blaster falls an inch when Dameron draws back in surprise. He and FN look into each other’s eyes with various degrees of confusion and concern.

Ben uses the interlude to unglue his dripping cloak from his person. He’s caught in the act when FN abruptly turns to him.

“What do you mean she fell to the Dark Side?!” FN all but strangles the answer out of him.

Ben doesn’t know what isn’t clear from his statement.

“She fell because of Palpatine!” Ben says through his gritted teeth, one hand tugging to take the cloak off. “But we can still save her if we hurry!”

“Why are you here then?” The ex-trooper crosses her arms and Ben mentally applauds her. She intuited something there, unlike the other two losers next to her.

Ben lets his gaze shift towards the _Falcon_ pointedly. “I’m here for my ship.”

Dameron’s response is an immediate glare. “It’s not _your_ ship!”

“It was my father’s ship so now it’s mine!” Ben scorns and hopes that he won’t have to begin his apparent path to redemption with a murder. “And I need it to go save Rey.”

FN sputters and Ben eyes his clenched fists, pondering if he can overpower one-hand-available Dameron and two over-emotional ex-troopers to get to his ship.

“And from the way you landed it, _Dameron_ ,” Ben spits out and almost literally spits at the _kriffing_ idiot, “I really hope it’s still fucking functional!”

At least, Dameron has the decency to look properly chastised for his stupid piloting skills.

“You don’t have any right to criticize us!” FN protests in return and Ben rolls his eyes at him.

He stands up, slowly so as to not give them any reason to shoot him. He’s without a weapon because, in his idiot brain, Ben forgot that the only weapon on his person was a _kriffing_ lightsaber. And now he’s at the mercy of these idiots.

Ben is just about to start heading for the _Falcon_ when a loud wail splits their ears and he turns around to get a mouthful of damp Wookie fur. Chewie’s hug almost tears him in half and Ben’s gasping for air by the time Chewie puts him down on his feet again.

“Yes, I’m sorry for everything.” Ben gasps, one hand on his hip and using the other to lean on his uncle and catch his breath.

Chewie offers a clipped roar and starts hitting him (out of principle really, and not hard enough to even be considered a real hit). Ben’s face twists into a grimace but he takes it like a big boy because he knows that Chewie is still sore and suffering over Ben killing his father.

A ragged moan in both a grumble and an exclamation.

“I tried my best. Dad helped, though.”

The response is a hard pat on the back that almost makes him tumble to the ground. Ben clenches his jaw and soldiers through the pain.

He clears his throat and begins anew.

“We need to leave. Rey’s in serious danger.” (And they are in serious danger from Rey.)

Chewie’s tone is questioning.

“No, we get the _Falcon_ and get out of here.”

“What ship did she use to leave?” Dameron asks, back to the topic of Rey’s disappearance.

“She left in Ren’s TIE.” FN promptly informs. Obviously, he has been waiting to drop this particular bomb. As expected, Dameron’s back to sending him dirty, accusing looks.

Ben sneers right back at him. Chewie huffs and rests his hands on his hips.

“Well, I was on the damn ground, hurt!”

“Where do you think she’s going?” The ex-trooper woman asks, unperturbed by now about any abrupt turn of events.

“Exegol.” Ben answers easily and both FN and Dameron jump like they’ve been hit by a plasma cannon.

“Did she take the Wayfinder too?!” FN makes to pace but thinks better of it.

Ben trembles in the chilly wind of the seaside shore because he might have at least three layers on him, but they’re all damn wet and useless.

“I had a Wayfinder already connected to my ship.”

“What!” Dameron exclaims like a sissy. “There’s more than one!?”

“There are two actually.” Ben glares at his general audience.

“Where’s the other then?” FN insists and Ben finally finds something to feel a little bad about.

“I have it.”

Their hopeful looks promptly fall when Ben produces the smashed Wayfinder from a secret pocket.

Quite fittingly, Chewie slaps his forehead and whines.

“I will admit,” Ben sniffs against the cold and the raging wind, “that it wasn’t one of my brightest ideas.”

His uncle shakes his fist at him and Ben pouts. He discards his outer tunic even though the raging wind raises goosebumps all over his body.

“We can probably salvage it.” Dameron says haltingly and Ben hates that the pilot gives him hope. “But not here.”

Dameron and FN-2187 look longingly into each other’s eyes and Ben rolls his in turn. The ex-trooper woman smirks.

Chewie hits Ben over the head, messing up what was left of his fucked-up hairstyle.

“We need to return to the Resistance base!” Dameron declares dramatically.

Immediately, Ben protests, just as dramatically. He’s not shocked to see FN slide up along with him, though he’s much more into Dameron’s personal space than Ben is or intends to.

“We can’t trust him, Poe!”

“We don’t have time for this!” Ben raises a finger in the pilot’s direction. “Rey is in grave danger!”

Chewie roars angrily. Ben rounds on him.

“You’re telling me that there’s nothing to work out the signal with the coordinates in the _Falcon_!?”

His uncle shrugs because who knows what’s on the _Falcon_ anymore and Ben deflates, but FN is not done yet.

“I’m completely against this!”

“Boohoo!”

In a completely uncharacteristic response, Ben’s sarcastic comment is received with more shock than angry, enthusiastic retorts. Seeing that he can’t reason with any of these idiots, he tries another approach.

“You will take me to the _Falcon_!” Ben flails a hand around in a decent use of the Force mind control, all serious and concentrated.

Disturbingly, Dameron and FN turn twin deadpan looks in his direction.

“Yeah, that won’t work on us, buddy.” Dameron shakes the blaster in his working hand without any heat to it, but Ben is offended anyways.

“I’m totally against this!” FN hisses and Ben snarls behind his back.

Dameron catches it and rolls his eyes in exasperation.

The ex-trooper woman only continues to watch them with amusement.

* * *

In the end, they all wind up on the _Falcon_ , in the main hold.

_Holding_ a silent stare-down over who’s going to pilot the ship.

Through it all, Ben can only think that they are wasting so much damn time. At least ex-trooper Jannah (apparently) is doing something productive and repairing what was left to be repaired, so that they can get out of this miserable place.

This doesn’t mean that Ben won’t be the one winning the stare-down, damn it.

“If I may interfere,” C3PO slides into the silence in his usual flippant manner. Ben has never met another droid that cannot read the room like this talented one, “I believe that we should trust in what Master Ben claims. He might be the most qualified to pilot the _Falcon_ under these circumstances-“

“Not now, Threepio!” In an unsurprising team effort, FN and Dameron snap at poor Threepio at the same time.

Dameron visibly frowns though, while FN remains with a resting bitchface and continues to throw it with complete belief in Ben’s direction.

Chewie growls softly.

“I completely agree with Chewbacca!” Threepio says, visibly relieved to have his opinion validated, against all probability. “The odds of reaching the Rebel base faster are seventy to one in Master Ben’s favor.”

“How did you even figure that out?” FN grouches to the golden droid. “You had your memory wiped!”

Ben is particularly taken aback by this information. Now Threepio’s quite unenthusiastic welcome makes more sense. Truthfully, he was ready for the droid to fry a circuit when Ben saw him again.

“Why yes, but when you have all the facts it’s quite easy to compute such an assumption.” Threepio explains patiently.

Ben feels his mouth tug into a smirk against twin glowers coming from the other two men and he cannot help but quip (even if he should know better by now).

“Seeing the damage you did to the _Falcon_ , I’d rather think that Threepio is right.” He looks up at his uncle with an accusing frown. “I can’t believe you let him lightspeed-skip with a ship this old. You could have blown up like idiots!”

Chewie laments with a wail and a desolate shrug that expresses his peaceful surrender. Then, suddenly, his uncle starts laughing at him and Ben frowns.

“Goodness! This is quite a strange day!”

Ben agrees with the droid wholeheartedly. Force knows why Chewie abruptly started acting like a crazy Wookie.

“What.” He acutely feels the way time ticks away and he’s afraid to find out how much of it they wasted.

Chewie finally breathes enough to start making sense again and Ben feels his face slip into a blank mask even though his insides are roiling.

_Rey said almost the same thing when we returned from that mission._

His chest is in a vice, but he powers through by sheer stubbornness alone. His uncle seems to sense it because all of his amusement is gone in a flash.

“We are wasting time.”

Is all Ben says as he stands up and makes his way to the cockpit.

It’s a flex of memory to get through the warm-up sequence of controls, but it’s in no way hard to know which buttons to push. It might have been a long time ago, but it’s as embedded in his memory as the _katas_ for lightsaber training are, Force or no Force.

Ben sits down and catches Chewie occupy the co-pilot’s seat and thanks the stars. He prepares the ship for take-off while he ponders on the fact that he surely would not be as calm with Dameron sitting next to him.

Speaking of, Ben hears them grumble and slide into the seats behind them, but he blocks off their irritating chattering and flexes his hands on the steering yoke as he counts down the seconds.

He feels Chewie’s gaze on him like a physical weight, but Ben ignores it too, as best as he can, and concentrates on not making more of a mess out of the _Falcon_. He exhales slowly through his nose and gingerly commands the ship to lift up into the air and with a great rumble of the engines, the _Falcon_ rises towards the heavens.

It takes Ben a moment to adapt to the speed and the feel of the ship, but it’s barely ten minutes later that they break atmosphere and he can say that he never quite forgot how to pilot it.

The canopy of stars greets him with their stony silence, and he watches them equally as silent, hand drifting to the hyperspace throttle as the navicomputer finishes calculating the route to Ajan Kloss.

A distant beep reaches his ears and Ben punches it, the stars stretching before his eyes and illuminating the way as the _Falcon_ carves its path through hyperspace.

* * *

Ajan Kloss is uninteresting in its density of plant life. There’s nothing here other than plants either.

Ben studies the jungle hideout and snorts. How are these people coordinating a whole war when half of their consoles are covered in grass and climbing plants and the other half are _plants_?

The moment the _Falcon_ touches down on the earthly tarmac, all eyes fix on it and Ben feels the upheaval of hope that its appearance brings along with it. He’s almost regretful to destroy their illusions.

The two stars of the Resistance debark first, followed by Threepio (who is still talking to himself because they all got tired of listening to him after the first hour) and Chewie. Despite feeling like a ten year old youngling, Ben keeps his footsteps well in his uncle’s shadow while he tries to take stock of everything at once.

It does not hurt to be prepared in case the Resistance is less than ecstatic of finding about his presence in their midst.

“Where is the General?” Is the first question out of Dameron’s mouth and Ben strains not to strangle him.

He is instead hit by a wave of pain and sadness and his own adds to the mix (that one, that he has successfully managed to keep bottled up until now) and Ben finds himself gasping for air. He fixes his gaze on Chewie’s hairy feet as Dameron and FN argue with the poor Resistance woman who has to deliver the sad news.

“The General is dead.”

Ben’s fists clench involuntarily at the declaration because now that it is said out loud, it means that it’s real and _he cannot accept it as real_ yet. How can he, when he never had the chance to talk or see his mother one more time before she died?

Chewie’s wail is second to Ben’s own heartbreak, but his uncle is way more outspoken than his nephew ever was, so Ben is confronted with a raging Wookie. Chewie demands answers in a critical tone and it’s all Ben can do to stand there like an idiot and watch the ground.

He does not dare look his uncle in the eyes and is definitely too afraid to face the wave of gasps echoing around the jungle when people catch sight of him. And he definitely must be a sight.

Dameron clears his throat while Chewie only continues to rage and Ben struggles to keep moving, if only because _Rey needs him_.

It’s a struggle to catch his uncle’s gaze when he decides to finally do some damage control, but he thinks he’s made it when Chewie suddenly straightens up and pauses in trying to stop himself from beating up his only nephew for not informing him of his mother’s death (of the death of one of Chewie’s _family_ members).

“Yeah, yeah,” Ben snarks because at this point, it’s all he has left, “I sensed it on Kef Bir!”

A growl is coupled with a melodious snort. Ben’s brows draw up as he gripes with the answer.

“Be-because I thought that it would be a distraction! Like it is now! Look at you!”

This time it’s a full on roar with particles of spit. Ben draws back slightly.

“You are not the only one suffering, you know!”

This time Chewie stops, retreats and Ben hopes that no one heard the raw pain in his voice but then again, he yelled it for the whole damn jungle to hear it. Force-dang it.

He’s assaulted by a plethora of grim faces, and more often than not, there’s anger swimming in their studious gazes but Ben has no time to plead his innocence today. (In retrospect, he doesn’t think that he’d plead innocence anyways.)

“We need to extract the information from the Wayfinder.” He reminds Dameron and FN.

Dameron glances at the older woman who delivered the news of his mother’s death and she shrugs, then she proceeds to inform them that Dameron has the rights to the title of General. The pilot accepts it, however reluctantly.

Glad to finally see things moving, Ben sidesteps Chewie and makes his way down the gangplank under the burning stares of the scarce Resistance.

“Where do you keep the decoders, Dameron?”

Ben barely finishes with the question when someone steps away from the crowd and in his general direction. His first instinct is to defend himself, but he remembers that he’s got no weapon, so Ben arches his body back and out of the line of fire until his mind connects the face with a name.

And _kriffing_ hell, the Force has got to be kidding with him today.

“If it isn’t my favorite nephew!” Lando draws him into a bearhug that Ben knows to be his typical way of showing affection and/or embarrassing teenager-Ben.

This time Ben thinks that he can hug his other uncle back.

Lando pulls away first, but he keeps his hands on Ben’s shoulders as he peers into Ben’s distracted gaze with a little bit of wonder and more than a lot of awe. Ben can certainly sympathize. No one told him that he’d be seeing the only family he has left today either.

“What in the blazes are you doing here?” The General whispers so low that Ben barely catches it.

He fights against a sardonic smirk.

“I wanted my ship back.”

Lando glances to the _Falcon_ for a second before he starts guffawing and patting Ben’s back. Ben can only dryly concede that Lando and Chewie share many similarities at this point.

Seeing as a veteran General of the Resistance is conversing so casually with a traitor (or whatever the hell Ben is, in the Resistance’s eyes) the rest of the Resistance takes a mental step back and allows Ben a little room to breathe.

“So, how can we help?”

Uncle Lando keeps an arm around his shoulders and even though Ben inwardly pulls a face at the insistence, he leaves the man be. He remembers very well that uncle Lando is more comfortable extending physical contact than words. At this point, Ben knows that the old man is incredulous to have his nephew back and keeps him at arm’s length because he does not want this miracle to vanish.

He is directed to a sort-of comms’ room, but out in the open and Ben wants to know how these people survived up to this point.

Dameron is already doing his best to coordinate something or the other while officers hurry in all directions with tasks to complete.

Ben all but groans out loud when the newest General of the Resistance announces that FN will be his co-general in the corniest way possible, but resorts to rolling his eyes again. He briefly ignores the accusing gazes that greet him when he looks back.

(Curiously, Ben is starting to believe that the Resistance has some kind of idea who he was and presently is, but they are either unsure how to handle him or they are derailed by Lando’s constant presence around him. If that turns out to be the case, he figures that he’s in Lando’s debt. The last thing Ben needs is to have the Resistance thwart his efforts of saving Rey.)

“What’s going on?” A communications’ officer asks, but Ben clearly sees her on more familiar terms with Dameron and FN that the rest of the officers.

“Rey fell to the Dark Side.” FN informs hurriedly. “She went to Palpatine, who is apparently on Exegol.”

The woman rightly frowns. “So, you guys did find the Wayfinder then?”

Dameron shakes his head. The woman’s eyes narrow dangerously.

“Then how did she know the way to Exegol?”

Dameron and FN – the _kriffing_ traitors – turn to him in unison and all but point their damn fingers at Ben.

“She left in this guy’s TIE, Rose.” Dameron explains and FN grumbles something inaudible in addition.

The newly named Rose crosses her arms and glares at him, but Ben is quite unaffected by her nonverbal threats since this is not the first time this happens to him and it definitely won’t be the last. Her glare is unwelcome, though.

“I admit that this wasn’t exactly part of my plan.” Ben defends himself because right now this is all he has left to do to protect his dignity and Skywalker-fueled ego. “But I definitely did not expect her to fall either. Which reminds me,” he levels his scorching, imperious glare at the _co-generals_ , “there’s no time to waste. You better extract those coordinates in the next half hour.”

“Or what?” Rose asks and Ben definitely likes her spirit.

“Or I’m doing it myself.” He snips and turns around.

Lando dutifully follows him out of the considerable group of people and Ben pretends to ignore the heated glares burning holes into his back all the way to the other side of the camp.

“You should go see your mother, Ben.”

It’s the last thing he wants to hear, but it’s also something quite inevitable at this point. He will never be ready anyway, so he might as well get it over with. Who knows what will happen on Exegol?

His agreement is a whisper lost in the breeze.

“Fine.”

Lando guides him to an open cave. They encounter Threepio on the way, with a fully restored memory and the droid _does_ _seem_ to almost fry a circuit by the way he’s exclaiming and happily gesturing, even with his limited range of motion. Artoo just beeps a greeting, somewhat cold but kind at the same time and Ben nods respectfully in his direction.

His footsteps get louder the closer he gets to the cave and he can discern the bed and the covered body resting in eternal slumber on top of it. Ben stops short, suddenly more afraid than ever, but another hand drops on his head, warm and reassuring.

He doesn’t need to look up to know that it’s Chewie. The sad moan is enough of a clue.

They offer Ben the dose of courage he didn’t know he needed and it’s enough to spurn him to complete the last few meters to the bed.

His mother’s small (smaller, frailer than he remembers) hand is so startlingly cold that it feels like he’s been doused in cold water himself. He touches the familiar ring on her hand and searches through his memory, wondering when the last time he saw her wear it was.

Probably a reception party on Chandrila. Summer. The sky was full of twinkling galaxies. His dad sneaked him a last drop of Corellian whisky.

Her voice comes unbidden in his mind. He and Rey were locked in combat and Ben heard his name called before the worst knife wound was inflicted to his soul. Enough to distract him and let his guard down.

He reaches out, gingerly draws the white blanket off, even though he never intended to see her face. She’s looks peaceful, he concludes, a complete opposite of how she has looked every other day of her life. His mother was a fighter, full of spirit and hope and never with a second to lose.

Leia never wasted a moment – always looking to be doing something for her family, her friends or the galaxy. Never slowing down and Ben knows that it’s her restless spirit that had Han Solo fall in love with her. It’s what Ben also appreciates, even if sometimes her character was to her own son’s detriment.

Ben loved her anyway.

He doesn’t know how long he watches her but sometime between now and then, the tears start and from there on it’s easy to allow himself to finally break down.

* * *

Lando left with Chewie some time ago and Ben is grateful that there wasn’t an audience to him spreading his soul out for the universe to see. Threepio is uncharacteristically silent when Ben steps back onto the green forest floor, but Artoo slides up next to him with a startingly loud series of beeps.

Ben looks down at the droid and his tight mouth lifts into something resembling a smile.

“How are you so sure?”

Two beeps, three boops.

Ben hums. “Then how come you didn’t tell Skywalker this?”

Five insistent beeps, a pause. Then another hurried series of beeping and booping.

Ben draws up short and stares at the droid, confused and with his mouth probably open.

“He _knew_ and yet he spread such lies?”

_Kriffing_ incredible what some people are capable of. Artoo agrees but still argues with him.

“I don’t really care how regretful he was that he hid away for a decade.” Ben snorts. “He still told Rey that I did all those awful things.”

Intermittent beeps.

He huffs and slips his hands in the pockets of his pants, looking away.

(He should ask for a change of clothes, he thinks.)

“Protect her from the Dark Side.”

_Kriffing_ Luke Skywalker. Always a man with a plan to combat the Dark Side.

“His efforts are null in the end.” Ben reminds the droid, as if he isn’t just the messenger. “She fell, Artoo.”

Artoo bumps into his legs and Ben gazes down sadly.

“I know. I will do my best.”

The droid beeps happily and starts back on the path to the crowded comms’ garden.

Lando is the first to greet him with a soft smile that morphs into a classic shit-eating grin. He presents a knapsack to Ben with a flourish and Ben takes it out of a desperate need to not be at the center of everyone’s attention again.

“A change of clothes and some food.” Lando pauses at the expression on Ben’s face and his grin stretches. “Kid, I know you pretty well considering. Don’t lie to me that you had something to eat in the last two days!”

Ben sniffs with disdain, not holding any reason to digress because he really does not remember the last time when he ate something.

So, he rounds on the co-generals and Rose instead.

“Did you do it?”

Rose looks up from her console and her face does something strange before smoothing out into a blank expression.

“Yes, I extracted the coordinates.”

There’s a but in there, Ben doesn’t need the Force to sense it.

“But?” He prompts, surrendering to his fatalistic fate.

“The location is in the Uncharted Regions.”

A moment passes in which Ben is more incredulous than shocked.

“And?” He thinks that maybe he missed something on the way to this barren conclusion. “I knew that, I’ve been there before.”

“What!” FN explodes like a goddamn volcano. “Then why did you need the coordinates?”

Ben hopes that his gritting teeth are audible to everyone in his general vicinity.

“Because,” ( _idiot_ ), “the Wayfinder offers an exact path that is otherwise impossible to find or make on my own.”

“Maybe if you use the Force or something…” Dameron trails off, uncertain but completely believing in his bullshit opinion.

“Or use the Force to find the last path you took.” FN throws his useless two credits out there just for the hell of it.

Ben pinches the bridge of his nose and reminds himself that murdering the co-generals of the Resistance is not the best move in this case. Either way, he can only offer one thing in the face of their blatant ignorance.

“That’s not how the _kriffing_ Force works!”

His rage is met with defensive glares, one amused look and two surprised stares.

Chewie breaks off into a rasping laugh. FN’s mouth stretches into a bitter smile and Ben frowns.

“What?” It’s not even a question at this point. Ben’s quite done with people randomly laughing in his face today.

“That’s the same thing Han Solo said to me on Starkiller, when I suggested we use the Force to disable the shield on the planet.”

At the mention of his father, Ben stops short. Something strange and tangled swims inside his chest, but it’s too convoluted to make sense of it right now. The association wraps him in a warm blanket though and he smiles slightly.

One thing occurs to Ben right then. He never did introduce himself properly to anyone. His mother would shake her head at him for this breach of etiquette.

Despite being ready to be rejected, Ben still steps up and thrusts his hand forward.

“Ben Solo.” He catches the brunt of the wave of shock passing through the ranks. The revelation must be world-turning for many. FN seems unruffled by it though. “Sorry for the late introduction.”

FN takes one more second before he grips Ben’s hand and shakes it once with a nod.

“Finn.”

And isn’t that fitting?

Dameron doesn’t hesitate to follow Finn’s example, even though Ben knows very well who he is and Dameron surely must know who Kylo Ren was as well.

“Poe Dameron.”

The comms officer nods as well. “Rose Tico.”

Ben nods once more, a greeting and a peace offering, all into one.

“Are you taking the _Falcon_ , Ben?”

Uncle Lando slips away from the edge of the console he was leaning up against and draws up to him.

Ben takes one look at his father’s ship and shakes his head.

“No, too conspicuous.” Then he makes a show of looking around. “Besides, I think you guys need all the help you can get.”

Lando grins and Chewie guffaws in short agreement.

“I will need whatever piece of junk you can give me, though.” Ben thinks that he might have tried his luck with the First Oder, but it feels a little too late now.

“That can be arranged!” Lando chuckles and directs Ben to a deserted bunk room he can use to change.

* * *

The protein bar wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t excessively amazing either. Even so, Ben’s stomach profoundly thanks uncle Lando anyhow.

They offer him a real piece of junk – even worse than the _Falcon_. The _Falcon_ is a piece of junk, but it’s a _well-loved_ piece of junk. This garbage looks barely able to break atmo.

Ben seriously wonders if this is the Resistance’s way of getting rid of him once and for all.

Chewie’s hand ruffles his tangled hair wistfully as they stand in front of the X-Wing.

“Make sure Lando doesn’t die like an idiot.”

His uncle howls in a promise. Ben swallows. Artoo and Threepio shift restlessly, a gesture so typical for the two of them.

“Don’t worry about us!” Lando calls as he approaches, Poe, Finn and Rose just a step behind him.

Scattered officers of the Resistance pop around the clearing, curious to see the last Skywalker take off.

“You just worry about getting back in one piece and with the girl.” Lando offers a grin that is too close to nervous that Ben shifts his gaze to the ground instead.

His uncle reaches behind his back and Ben instinctively raises a hand to catch the blaster thrown at him. He studies it curiously and chokes back a surprised yelp when he realizes that it’s the blaster Lando wanted to give him when he was very, very young.

“May the Force be with you, Ben.”

* * *

He thought that he’d die. Ben certainly came very close to it, but somehow he and Rey managed to heal each other enough that both of them survived through the ordeal.

That is, after Ben fought tooth and nail and finally managed to bring her back from the Dark Side. He was just in time but so, _so_ damn close to losing her forever.

“Are you sure you want to come here?” Rey asks furtively, eyes dancing over the clamor on the ground.

The Resistance celebrates today – the end of a war and the beginning of something close to real peace that the galaxy has not felt in decades.

Paradoxically, Ben is fucking glad to be able to see it with his own two eyes. He grunts in a wordless answer as he touches down and exits first, then extends his hand to help Rey down.

She’s holding her side in pain and has her fair share of bruises but is otherwise unharmed. Not something that Ben can say, with his twisted ankle and more bruises than healed skin, but he will survive. He survived Exegol after all.

From the loud crowd of unfamiliar faces, Poe, Finn and Rose come running out. Rey opens her mouth to greet them but is cut off when Poe all but jumps on Ben, deliriously happy.

“You _kriffing_ did it, Solo!”

Finn keeps hitting his bicep with his own stupid grin and Ben finds out that there had been a segment of untouched skin. Not anymore.

Rey embraces Rose gingerly, but tightly. Her eyes take in the incredible sight of Ben attacked by the boys and commits it to memory because she may be dreaming at this point, but even so does not want to ever forget this sight.

“Don’t mind them,” Rose rolls her eyes in feigned exasperation, “they’re idiots.” Her thumb seriously encompasses all _three_. “All of them!”

Poe and Finn drag Rey into the tightest hug in the universe while Rose pats Ben’s arm with a smile and Ben returns it because at this point, he’s too tired to care. Besides, Rose is cool.

“There he is! Our little starfighter!” Uncle Lando all but kisses him on the cheeks and Ben pats the man’s back with an unprecedented amount of emotion.

Uncle Chewie expresses his joy at seeing him in the same physical manner as usual, and it takes all Ben has not to crumble to the ground under the Wookie’s strength.

“Nice to see you on this side, young Ben!” Maz Kanata takes him in with one of her usual knowing looks and Ben only nods back, placing all his thanks and gratefulness in one single motion.

Then his attention shifts again as the party reaches a wild point and everyone disperses to talk with everyone else.

It’s Ben and Rey that are left on the edges – and maybe two nosy droids.

“Made some new friends, Solo?” Rey teases, a cute twist to her mouth and Ben grins (only for her).

“Unfortunately,” He drawls and glances back to the victorious faction that his family founded and led through yet another war for peace, “I’ve been forced to.”

**Author's Note:**

> I do hope that I managed to capture that Solo snark  
> (I did try my best)
> 
> Comments are very appreciated!


End file.
